Question about striking nurses?

TazziRN, RN · Jul 29, 2007

By striking they are taking away the labor. The hospital will now have to prepare for the lack of staffing. When word gets out pts may support the nurses by not going to that facility and honoring the picket line, therefore hurting the hospital in its pocket.

Frequent floating can be dangerous for pts, if the nurse does not have the experience needed to effectively care for specialty pts. Money is always an issue, because historically nurses are way underpaid for what we do. We get paid very well in comparison to other professions, but we are responsible for lives......you would think we'd be worth a lot more.

loricatus · Jul 29, 2007

By striking they are taking away the labor. The hospital will now have to prepare for the lack of staffing. When word gets out pts may support the nurses by not going to that facility and honoring the picket line, therefore hurting the hospital in its pocket.
Frequent floating can be dangerous for pts, if the nurse does not have the experience needed to effectively care for specialty pts. Money is always an issue, because historically nurses are way underpaid for what we do. We get paid very well in comparison to other professions, but we are responsible for lives......you would think we'd be worth a lot more.

Great response! I do have to add that management must get their hands dirty during a strike and assume patient care responsibilities. This is a good way for them to experience what staff has been having to deal with. So many in management idealize their patient care days and have forgotten what it is like to be a full-time bedside nurse. Also, many who were bedside years ago, before all the changes in health care and high patient acuity now seen in hospitals, cannot truly understand the gripes of the staff nurse IMHO. Now, if we could get the upper management to assist as aides, things might really change. Imagine what would happen after the CEO had to wipe a butt, empty a bedpan, was spit upon or hit by elderly dementia patient, had to deal with the drug seeking manipulator with 15/10 lower back pain, or kiss up to the patient who says that they are good friends with the CFO...

cheshirecat · Jul 29, 2007

Historically nurses have always been paid low wages in comparison with the amount of responsibility we have (especially UK nurses). In comparison to other key workers ie police and teaching our salaries are a lot lower.

I personally would not like to be nursed by someone who is tired because he/she has had to work massives of overtime just in order to pay the mortgage, put food on his/her kids plate and shoes on their feet.

I believe in a fair wage for the work we do. This year we where given a pay rise of 1.9% which is below the rate of inflation.

Would I strike? Hard question, I honestly don't know what I would do,but I feel we in the NHS should stop working unpaid overtime, and stop not taking lunch breaks etc.

TrudyRN · Jul 30, 2007

The nurses won't walk out without notice. Unfortunately, they have to give notice (a couple of weeks' notice or something like that) so the bosses can bring in a bunch of scab nurses to replace them.

A scab is someone who crosses a picket line and does the work the strikers would normally be doing. Scabs make strikes last longer since the work is getting done in spite of the strike.

There is an old movie called "Salt of the Earth" that might interest you. Also, read up on how the various unions came to be in America. Basically, the workers were low-paid slaves and their bosses made fortunes off of the workers' blood, sweat, and tears. One great book on this topic is Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". It is about the meatpacking industry. Read about the Industrial Revolution, too, and its effect on families.

lindarn · Jul 30, 2007

The nurses won't walk out without notice. Unfortunately, they have to give notice (a couple of weeks' notice or something like that) so the bosses can bring in a bunch of scab nurses to replace them.
A scab is someone who crosses a picket line and does the work the strikers would normally be doing. Scabs make strikes last longer since the work is getting done in spite of the strike.
There is an old movie called "Salt of the Earth" that might interest you. Also, read up on how the various unions came to be in America. Basically, the workers were low-paid slaves and their bosses made fortunes off of the workers' blood, sweat, and tears. One great book on this topic is Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". It is about the meatpacking industry. Read about the Industrial Revolution, too, and its effect on families.

It never ceases to amaze me how naive the American public is about unions. They have forgotten the sweatshops of 100 years ago, that brought rise to the union movement in this country.

I hear people say, "unions time has come and gone. We don't need unions anymore". Worker pay, benefits, and control/respect has nose dived in the past twenty years, as unions have fallen out of favor, and less and less workers belong to them.

If any time was needed for unions, it is NOW. People have forgotten what it was like. Workers have lost consistently without union.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

ernurse16 · Jul 30, 2007

A few years ago Anhueser Busch workers avoided a strike when they reached an agreement to pay (I think it was the bottlers) $50.00 an hour. Nurses here in the same city (St Louis) with an average of 10+ years make on average $25.00 per hour. hmmmm... does it give you an idea where priorities are? We save lives and they watch bottles go by on a conveyer belt and make twice as much! There is something so wrong here!!! When are nurses ever going to stand up for themselves and unite and demand to get paid what they deserve for what they do?:angryfire Sadly... it's doubtful they ever will ... we are whimps and just keep taking it!:trout:

swincha · Jul 30, 2007

11% raise? Thats huge! I always got 3% and at my current newer job I got 5% which is unheard of. I think they are greedy. As for floating...I do not agree with floating from floors to ER or units otherwise floating is acceptable if you have had orientation to that floor.

swincha · Jul 30, 2007

A few years ago Anhueser Busch workers avoided a strike when they reached an agreement to pay (I think it was the bottlers) $50.00 an hour. Nurses here in the same city (St Louis) with an average of 10+ years make on average $25.00 per hour. hmmmm... does it give you an idea where priorities are? We save lives and they watch bottles go by on a conveyer belt and make twice as much! There is something so wrong here!!! When are nurses ever going to stand up for themselves and unite and demand to get paid what they deserve for what they do?:angryfire Sadly... it's doubtful they ever will ... we are whimps and just keep taking it!:trout:

I live in St. Louis, maybe I should be bottling beer. Might be less stressful. I never heard about this strike.

ernurse16 · Jul 30, 2007

They didn't go on strike... but were ready to when they came to an agreement. It was about the same time the St John's nurses were fighting their battles. I am considering apply at AB myself where maybe I can make some real money and might even be appreciated by my employer... At least I will know I am making those that drink the beer I would be bottling appreciate what I do!!!! I really do think it's pathetic where priorities lie

AliRae · Jul 30, 2007

I'm not trying to start a huge debate, I just want to understand why striking will help the patients.

This very question is what gave me months of sleepless nights last year when I was involved in a strike.

When a union votes to authorize a strike, they give the hospital a 10-day notice. The hospital then has that time to make arrangements for the patients to be taken care of when the nurses walk out. Unfortunately, there are agencies that provide nurses to work at hospitals while they are on strike. If not for these women and men, nurses as a whole would have a much stronger voice; hospitals would be forced to negotiate, since there would be NO plan B.

When the nurses walk out, the last shift gives report to management. As quickly as possible, the hospital brings in scab nurses to cover the holes. This works with varying degrees of success - I know at my hospital we had adult med-surg nurses staffing our PICU. A strike ends when one of two things happen: One - enough nurses have crossed the line and gone back to work, making it financially possible for the hospital to continue normal operations. Two - the nurses stay strong and the hospital realizes it is losing too much money and goes back to the table, hopefully to provide the nurses with an acceptable contract.

At the end of the day, the decision a nurse makes to walk out on strike is one of the hardest decisions she or he will ever have to make. But, and here's the answer to your original question, it's not just about that nurse at that hospital on that particular day.

As long as nurses sit back and watch management allow unsafe staffing ratios, toxic work environments, and lack of respect for our position, we are keeping our profession from moving forward. We are allowing poor working conditions to continue. The worse it gets for nurses, the fewer new nurses we're going to be attracting. It's simple math - if the profession stinks, people aren't going to break down the doors to get into it.

By going on strike, while it might feel futile at the time, a hospital full of nurses can send the message that we deserve, and will be accorded, respect. I know there were several other area hospitals coming up on contract negotiations while we were on strike, and they were watching VERY carefully to see what our outcome would be. When the realized our nurses held strong, they were able to go into negotiations with higher expectations and stronger backbones.

A strike is about the future of nursing, not just the patients who are in the beds at that moment.

(Sorry about the diatribe. It's a passionate subject for me)

ernurse16 · Jul 30, 2007

thanks for your post... I completely agree with you :)